Tag Archives: larry ivkovich

Larry Ivkovich launched book 3 of his Spirit Winds Quartet, Orcus Unchained, at Confluence Science Fiction Convention in Pittsburgh on August 6 this year. By all reports it was a very successful event.

Larry Ivkovich has been an author in IFWG’s stable for 6 years, debuting with his urban fantasy novel, The Sixth Precept (Book 1 of the Spirit Winds Quartet). We absolutely fell in love with his book – it ticked so many boxes, such as having exotic locations (notably Japan), drawing from ancient mythologies, time travel, and introducing a kick-ass female protagonist. Over the years we have published Book 2 of the series, Warriors of the Light, and a special chap-ebook that dovetails wonderfully with the quartet – A Concerned Citizen.

We are very pleased indeed to announce the release of the third book of the Spirit Winds Quartet – Orcus Unchained. We think it’s Larry’s best yet.

As you can see on the cover, Naples features strongly in this instalment, along with feudal Japan and Pittsburgh – exotic indeed! Thanks to Elizabeth Lang from EL Designs for producing evocative, dark covers throughout the series. Continue reading →

Our longstanding author, Larry Ivkovich, kindly sent us a commentary on his experience at the recent Nebula Awards.

Eighteen years ago, the Nebula Awards were held in Pittsburgh at the downtown Marriot City Center Hotel. At that time, the prestigious event hosted by SFWA lasted roughly a day-and-a-half with no real programming to speak of. That’s changed over the years and this year’s Nebulas, held in the same venue, featured a full slate of panels and presentations.

I, like many local SF fans and volunteers from Parsec, Pittsburgh’s premier SF/Fantasy organization, attended this year’s awards held from May 18 – 21. It was pretty dazzling. We all got a bulgingly-full canvas shoulder bag of books at registration donated by TOR Books, one of the con’s sponsors. The panels I attended were informative, fun, and inspiring. At Thursday night’s Beer Tasting, I met Locus Magazine’s editor, Liza Trombi. Throughout the course of the weekend, I met several of the upcoming new generation of SF writers, including Nebula winners and nominees William Ledbetter, Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, Amal El-Mohtar, Charlie Jane Anders, and Victor LaValle, among others.

We in IFWG Publishing have been waiting in anticipation for the release of the sequel to Larry Ivkovich’sThe Sixth Precept. The end is now in sight with Warriors of the Light, book 2 of the Spirit Winds Quartet, due for release on the 24th May 2016. In the meantime, we would love to share the cover (including the full wrap), for your viewing pleasure.

After returning from her time-traveling adventures in 16th Century Japan, Kim Yoshima finds adjusting to her old life isn’t as easy as she thought it would be. Neither is it for her friends, Shioko Yoshima, Jackson Yamaguchi, and Wayne Brewster.

All suffer trauma of varying degrees, struggling to adapt and reconcile the past and present, and what role they now have in the world.

But, all is not well in the multiverse either. Not every mythological creature torn out of time-and-place by the Spirit Winds was sent back to its own realm. Some still exist in our world and hunger to go home.

To do so, they need Kim Yoshima’s esper powers and will strive to harness them any way they can, even if it means Kim’s death.

And if that isn’t enough, an old enemy of Kim’s makes a startling return.

In 16th century medieval Japan, Yoshima Mitsu, who is gifted with psychic powers, uses her prescient abilities to send her young attendant, Shioko, into the future. There, Mitsu believes Shioko will be safe from the purges of the maniacal warlord Omori Kadanamora, his warrior monks and his half-human, half-bestial Shadow-Trackers.

In present-day Pittsburgh, police Lieutenant Kim Yoshima is attacked by a creature out of someone’s twisted nightmare. In the aftermath of that terrifying struggle, Kim finds a young Japanese girl named Shioko, lost, confused and calling Kim “Mitsu” and her monstrous attacker a “Shadow-Tracker.”

Wayne Brewster dreams of the costumed hero, ArcNight. But more than that, he feels bizarrely connected to the fictional crime fighter as if ArcNight and his comic book world are real. And in all of his dreams, Brewster sees one constant, one face repeated over and over–the face of Kim Yoshima.

Empowered by a mysterious book, The Five Precepts to Enlightenment, Kim realizes her destiny is in the past. Using her own burgeoning esper powers, Kim, accompanied by Shioko and Brewster, travel by means of a temporal rift to feudal Japan. There they must assume different personas to fight Omori and creatures of Japan’s mythological world to fulfill ancient prophesy and modern historical fact. If they fail, history will be altered and the world will change forever.

A very good cover by Elizabeth Lang.

Some print and ebook online stores will be showing the old cover for a while but all purchases will contain the new cover. It can be bought from our print and ebook stores now.